Once a geek always a geek
August 7, 2008
Posted by CindyW in : Opinions & Thoughts , trackback
Yesterday I had some time to read an incredible article by Nathan S. Lowis, a chemistry professor at the California Institute of Technology. Though the paper is one year old, it includes so much astounding information that makes my head spin. I love numbers because they speak facts to me.
I’d like to share some of his thoughts in the conclusion section first:
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In the United States, we spend more money buying gas at the pump in ONE hour than we spend funding basic solar research in our country over an ENTIRE year.
In that ONE hour, more energy from the sun hits the earth than all of the energy consumed on our planet in an ENTIRE year.
We don’t yet know how to capture the solar energy cost-effectively.
We spend $200 Billion annually to fund the Iraqi war (I added this from NYT), $28 Billion on health, and $0.028 Billion on basic solar research.
I translate it to myself: We can avert the climate crisis IF (big if here) we have the will power and the vision further than what’s on TV tonight.
CindyW at Organicpicks
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Comments»
These sort of statistics always fascinate me. They offer a real glimpse into our culture. One that hopefully motivates the right folks.
This makes me sad. And hopeful at the same time. Because we’ve done so much with solar energy, think of what would happen if we funded it at the same level as the Iraq War!!
Those numbers are mind blowing…and yet not so. It just depresses me though.
I agree with beany, arduous and green bean on this it is depressing that we can’t get more done on this. Larry Hagman has a solar array the size of a football field. Nice to be rich huh- well ol JR shares it with his neighbors. Need more guys like larry!
GB: I love numbers, because they tell better stories than a whole lot of words. Nathan Lewis’ paper has a ton of fascinating numbers.
arduous and Beany: actually I am not so depressed when looking at the numbers. With putrid amount of funds in solar research, we have gone some distance (definitely not far enough). Imagine with 100x fund what sort of breakthrough solar technologies can be available for us. But of course we have to get our priorities straight, that is the tough part.
Rob: thanks for the Larry Hagman story. That’s awesome. I wish I was that rich
Lottery ball, do you hear me? I promise to build a big solar field and share! Time to buy my lottery ticket.